The "1st Bilingual Diving Magazine", EZ DIVE, featured Bimini, The Bahamas in their Oct/Nov 2009 issue. The author's underwater photographs were taken during boat trips with local operator Al Sweeting, Jr.
You can read the story (and the DCP shout out!) by clicking here.
Today’s winter dolphin trip was spectacular. Nowdla Keefe had small group of passengers and everyone was thrilled that the sun was shining and the seas were calm. On the way out of the harbor we passed a shark, but our thoughts were on dolphins. We were busy early as a small group of bottlenose dolphins appeared to be feeding. They had no interest in the boat, so after everyone got a good look (and I got some ID shots) we headed in search of spotteds. We were not disappointed! It was a special day as we were able to observe a group of eight dolphins – 4 moms and 4 calves. Trudy (#57, pictured here) and Stefran (#82) appeared to have the older two calves, while Lone Star (#56) and a mystery adult had particularly young babies. We watched them from the boat and eased our way into the water. At first the calves seemed quite eager to check us out and then we got to see the moms. During our second water entry, they had paired up and were slowly swimming toward the sea floor.
On the way home we got to check out a good sized shark (tiger?) from the safety of the boat and a bonus look at bottlenose dolphins again. We couldn’t have asked for a better day!
One of our favorite Bimini dolphins (oh, wait, aren't they all our favorites!?) has just received a name! ID#078, now called "Speedy," was named by Jenni MacArthur for Mark Tse. Speedy is a juvenile male who is just that. And when he rolls over, you can see his big, dark, belly spot! Now that Speedy's name is official, you can support DCP's research and education programs by adopting him today! Want something a little more flattering? How about a nice cozy sweatshirt with his image front and center? Click to adopt Speedy or click to shop Speedy Gear.
Our latest Gazette is hot off the press! This issue of the Gazette focuses mostly on Bimini - the studies, the people and, of course, the dolphins. But there are plenty of other research updates, as well as a matching game where you can test your skill at identifying dolphin species! Click here to download it as a PDF (3.7MB)
Help DCP to land a grant! We've put in a grant proposal that you can checkout online at this link: http://tinyurl.com/yjmrzfr
Anyone can leave a comment about our grant idea, and the granting agency (The MacArthur Foundation) will be keeping tabs to see which proposals generate the most buzz. If there any any fans of DC...P out there who would like to help, please feel free to leave feedback about how totally awesome our grant idea is. Which it is of course. The more the public gets excited about it, the better our chances of getting the grant! Here's the idea in two sentences:
The Dolphin Science Academy is an Internet-based gaming application that will test
participants’ knowledge of dolphin science. By watching hundreds of
online videos focusing on topics like species identification, dolphin
biology, etc., members who attain the highest rank might even win a
chance to study dolphins in the wild.
I am writing this just before I pull the zippers closed for my trek to the airport and then my travel home. It is another beautiful day with minimal clouds in the sky. If I could bottle the warmth and climate and bring it back with me to Connecticut, I would indeed. We had a very successful field season with 11 hours of data recorded with the MVA. Wu-Jung, from the MIT/WHOI joint program joined us for the second week and collected 2.25 hours of DTag data (simultaneous with the MVA) and another roughly 2 hours of data of ambient sounds and echolocation clicks as dolphins swam by two omni-directional hydrophones.
We'll be analyzing these data over the coming months and will post updates to the Dolphin Gazette or maybe even field reports as the season heads into spring. Thanks for following along. Cheers Kathleen
We were up and out and then in early on Friday, as is usual. I was in the water by 6:40 am but the visibility was not cooperating - very silty and so the distance was only about 4 meters for me to see or confirm there was a dolphin in view. They had to be within 2-3 m for me to identify them! But, a few of the dolphins were socially active and we recorded some neat sounds - whistles and click trains. The MVA was again wearing the DTag and so the recording bandwidth for the units overall was up to ~86 kHz. For those of you reading this report with an acoustic background, the sample rate was about 170 kHz.
During Wu-Jung's, visit we were able to collect about 2.25 hours of data with the MVA and DTag simultaneously. It will be very interesting to see the almost full range of the dolphin's vocalization capability during these observations. The MVA records in the human hearing range, which has a max frequency of about 22 kHz. We'll keep you posted with updates in future issues of the Dolphin Gazette about these data analyses.
Wu-Jung and Penn departed late this morning and I spent a bit of the afternoon cleaning and drying out my gear to pack it for my departure tomorrow. I did join the trainers for their last session of the day and was able to spend a bit of time with Gracie and her calf. I fed Gracie while the trainers worked with some of the other dolphins. We had a grand time - or at least I did. Gracie was quite tactile and so I enjoyed rubbing her, when she was not retrieving her calf. Gracie's calf is a bit more than 2 months old and very much self-entertaining! She wanders and just plays and plays. This was a nice way to wrap up my January field season here at RIMS/AKR.
A cloudless day greeted us Friday as we took the taxi boat to Bailey's Key. We were set for another hour session, but the dolphins had other plans. They were into their own social games with the males chasing each other around. There was lots of leaping above the surface and buzzes heard below. French, Ken and Ronnie were all quite pushy and mouthy on my fins. There are days (like today) when I believe the dolphins have absolutely no concept of personal space! It is really hard to conduct a behavioral analysis of the side of a dolphin’s body or a single eyeball in the lens.
The underwater visibility also contributed to our shortened session because it was very silty and the light was low. So, I ended the session at about 16 minutes. No need to push the observation session if the dolphins are either too far to be seen in low visibility conditions, or are too close to confirm ID because their body fills the frame! We were able to record with the DTag for those 16 minutes and Wu-Jung has more data to analyze during the chilly winter months.
Wu-Jung was also able to record data for about an hour of the ambient sounds and dolphin clicks with two omni-directional hydrophones from the dock area. The hydrophone was outside the netting so the dolphins could not play tug-of-war with it. The click calls are quite interesting and the ambient noise is very low here; hardly any snapping shrimp were heard, much less recorded. In the above photo, while recording echolocation, Wu-Jung confers with dolphin as Casey watches.
Tomorrow is our last day with Wu-Jung and Penn. We'll have a last ~40 min data collection session and then begin to dry and pack gear for the end of this year's data collection session.
We conducted an hour data collection session Thursday morning that had great underwater visibility, socially interacting dolphins (mostly with each other and not my fins!), and both the MVA and DTag in use. We captured many click trains and even some burst pulses. The following link is a sample of a burst pulse series from Ronnie.
He had been investigating my fins and circle swimming around me. Then, he swam in front of me and looped back with the first 4 short bursts followed by the longer 3 calls. Each burst was accompanied by a bubble stream and after he was done he swam off. I'm not entirely sure he was vocalizing at me or maybe at some other dolphin that might have been behind me. Still, his calls made an impression!
All the dolphins swam by with the calves mostly playing with each other more often than hanging out with mom. Ken, French and Anthony were hanging around each other while Hector, Han and Dixon were in formation as they swam by me several times. All in all, we had a very good morning. The afternoon provided us an opportunity to share a bit more about our research with the training staff, and, to do a bit of video analysis.Our weather has been spectacular and the current has not been too exhausting.
Wednesday's morning session brought 30 minutes of video of socially active dolphins. Maury and Bill were observed together often with Mika's calf hanging close to Maury and sometimes positioning himself between Maury and Bill. It was the least active I have seen Maury in several mornings - she just seemed content to swim next to Bill. Hector, Han and Anthony, on the other hand, were a bit more rambunctious and were rolling all over each other. Mrs. B and Cedena kept their calves close as usual. It was a good session.
The afternoon brought us a short boat ride out to the area where the dolphins dive with scuba divers. Eldon and Teri and Kenly were working with Paya and Ronnie on their open water work. Ronnie is easily enticed by passing boats and the lure of the bow wave, but he avoided temptation today and the jaunt was fun ... except for the birds dive bombing them for fish! The data collection session right after this boat ride was special in that the MVA had an extra set of ears attached.
Wu-Jung is a doctoral student with the MIT/WHOI joint program and is here this week to begin preliminary work into studying how dolphins use their echolocation for prey (or target) discrimination behavior. The DTag was developed by the WHOI team and has been used quite extensively to study foraging beaked and sperm whales. The tag has not been used in a more controlled situation with captive bottlenose dolphins. Wu-Jung joined DCP's program this week to coordinate with RIMS about conducting a study with these dolphins to collect data with a DTag. Over several months, several dolphins will be habituated to wearing the DTag and then be ready to answer questions while wearing the tag that records their echolocation and the resulting target echoes.
We decided to attach the DTag to the MVA housing to record dolphin clicks while also recording their behavior with the MVA. These data will give Wu-Jung information about the intensity level of the clicks so that she can calibrate the recording equipment when we return for extensive data collection with the DTag that the dolphins will wear. We decided that some photos would do a better job than a lot of prose in telling the story about our DTag/MVA romance (so to speak) this afternoon. The first photo shows the MVA with the DTag as invited remora! The second is Kathleen preparing for entry while the dolphins and gear wait patiently. The third photo is just after Kathleen slipped into the water and the dolphins examined her ... silently! During the session, the dolphins all investigated the MVA and Kathleen (fourth picture)...and much echolocation data were collected.
We plan to collect more data with both tomorrow morning.
Tuesday was a good day with a one hour session in the early morning for data collection. We have lucked out with the weather; the morning sky was mostly clear and the sun brightened the view underwater early on. The underwater visibility continued to be EXCELLENT! Ronnie again had new rake marks on his back but that seems nothing new since he is still the instigator in the group. Mika's calf was spending some time with him this morning and I truly hope the calf is not picking up Ronnie's habits! The morning was filled with low-level social activity and all the calves again had a chance to come check out the green tube that I push through the water. We also documented some nursing by Gracie's calf and by Mrs. Beasley's calf.
Ken was roughly playing with Anthony and then with Ritchie - squawking at one another with bubbles and rubbing their heads and backs against each other. It seemed a bit like sparring or wrestling. Near to the end of my session, as I was approaching my exit point, I saw a weird looking fish and as I got a bit closer (filming the whole time) I realized it was a lionfish. They are hanging out all over the place, an accidental introduction to the Atlantic and Caribbean. possibly during Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Our afternoon was spent entering the surface data into the excel logs and working on a video log. We decided to do the logs out of order and started with that day's tape (A41008). We worked our way through ten minutes of video data in about 3 hours. As we went along, we updated sketches. These dolphins, especially the young males, have lots of new rake marks even in the last 5-7 days! Penn and I also helped Wu-Jung, doctoral student at MIT/WHOI, calibrate and test her two hydrophones. Tomorrow we hope to collect data with the DTag that she brought with her. But, more on that tomorrow...
Until then, Kathleen
(this photo from 2006 shows an adult RIMS dolphin spying on the surface observers ... she has no rakes visible in this photo)
Today was the first dolphin trip of 2010 and it was a fantastic day. Bill & Nowdla had a small, but excited group of passengers and we were all ready to see the dolphins. The seas were flat, the sun was shining and it wasn’t long before Nowdla spotted them – the spotted dolphins, that is! The boat headed toward them and we soon saw Lil’ Jess (#35), White Blotch (#29) and White Blotch’s calf, ID#94. The length of their bond is definitely on the long side of average; #94 is now 5 ½ years old and still hanging close with mom! White Blotch did not show any signs of being pregnant again yet either. There was a fourth adult spotted in the group, but even though I got a close look at it, I couldn’t readily identify it. Hopefully I’ll know once I review the video. During the trip we had two great underwater encounters – the dolphins came very close, especially Lil’ Jess and #94, who are pictured here (Lil' Jess is closest to the camera). In between our swims everyone also got a great show while the dolphins rode the bow of the boat. What a day!
I was in the water twice on Monday for a 30 min session (6:30 AM) and then a 60 min session (11:00 AM). The underwater visibility was 10 meters plus and it was clear with some sun, so it was also bright! The dolphins were quite social and very interactive with one another. On my first entry, Mika had Gracie's calf! Mika's calf was nowhere to be seen until I spotted Ronnie chasing him. I believe this little guy is a true instigator! Individually and at different times, he and Pigeon (Cedena's calf) have echolocated at and on me. They do this when their mom's are a bit away and so they can really get into it. During the second session, Mika's calf was rubbing and playing with Marge and then withFiona. They might have been "calf-sitting" for Mika. Also during the second session, I watched and recorded as Gracie and Maury swam into view on their sides but belly to belly with Gracie's tiny calf between them. It reminded me of the bear hugs that John and I give to Umi. The calf was reacting like Umi and seemingly trying to wiggle free of mom and her big sister!
Penn and Wu-Jung had their first swim with the dolphins. Both exited with huge smiles, mimicking the dolphins?! Both Penn and Wu-Jung have worked with and studied dolphins and Wu-Jung is a graduate student studying dolphin echolocation for her doctorate. Still, the swim gave them both a different perspective or feel for how the dolphins interact under water. There is so much to learn and observe from these animals. So much we can learn about their social behavior and society.
There will be many hours spent in data analysis but it is all very worth it. Tomorrow begins early in the morning - more data. So far, the weather has held for us and the current and visibility are also...
We had two morning data collection sessions - one at 6:30 and one at 10 a.m. The sky had a layer of cumulus clouds on the northern horizon which dropped a bit of rain on us early in the morning, but the later morning session had bright sun. The wind and current joined the sun making for an exercise-filled underwater session. The dolphins were very vocal early and Mika had Gracie's calf when I entered. Mika's calf was nowhere that I could see until about 20 min into the session when he was with mom again. The juvenile and adult males were VERY social this morning and Ronnie was riddled with new long rake marks all over his left side!
The second session was quieter - everyone had consumed breakfast and interacted with their trainers. There was some rubbing and definitely some inquisitive behavior around my fins. Bailey had her little sister, Pigeon (Cedena's 6 month old calf) with her often during this session and seemed to want to keep Pigeon a bit farther away from me than Pigeon wanted to be. Bailey swam between us on several occasions.
For about 15 min during the first portion of this second session, Teddy, one of the trainers, was checking some of the netting and saw a lionfish, but I did not see it. Maybe I will later in the week.The current kicked up about half way through this session and made my swim back to the platform a bit more challenging. The wind increased but so far the waves have not yet followed suit. Maybe the predicted storm will be small?! Still, we spent the afternoon reviewing video and entering data from the observation sessions. Tomorrow begins with another early morning session over at Bailey's Key. If you look closely at this photo you can even see some of the dolphins in the image.
We were able to get one more session of data collection in this morning (early again) before Amanda, Amber, Kristin and Sarah had to finish packing their gear. The dolphins were active and vocal and provided a nice salute to our student observers. Even though the field portion of their class on animal behavior is complete, each student now has the task of reviewing and processing the observational data they collected and preparing a paper that includes their data and a literature review on their topics.
The next team includes Penn and Wu-Jung. They arrived later in the afternoon so our first review of DCP's research here at RIMS and our first data collection session begin tomorrow morning.
We started the morning early again … Kathleen was in the water at 6:37 am. The dolphins were VERY active this morning and we recorded lots of surface behavior. There was much rolling and various body parts splashed about at the surface. It was also our very first fully sunny day! That is, no clouds really to speak of, which led most of us to get a bit of sunburn. But it was totally worth it! We got the sun not only during Kathleen’s data collection but during our observations while the trainers were working with the dolphins this morning. It was our last data collection session for our field projects. This session was about 2 hours long.
We had our second dolphin swim also today at noon and it was awesome! In the above picture, we are hugging French during our encounter. We observed quite a bit of behavior during the swim – Sarah was pushed around and up by the dolphins while Marge “screamed” at Kristin because she was not paying enough attention to her. For the record, Kristin was intently watching one of the young calves. One of these young calves was rubbing intensely against his mom – sort of waggling his/her body back and forth against mom. Marge seemed to surround herself with all of our swimmers when the young males were charging her. We also saw quite a few neat fish during our dolphin swim – even one lionfish! They are definitely interlopers.
The afternoon provided our last talk for the class and it was on communication: this was a nice way to wrap up the class for the field portion. Dinner was illustrated by the Garifuna dancers and much loud music and dancing all around.Tomorrow we depart.
The details might be a might fuzzy (Sea Crest Hotel & Marina has 25 rooms), but NatGeo has the rest correct - Bimini has beautiful often empty beaches, mangroves and of course, wild dolphins! You can read the article by clicking here and then, why not sign up for DCP's eco-tour this May in none other than Bimini, Bahamas? Click here for more info on the trip.
Another early morning data collection session – an hour today with awesome underwater visibility (10 m plus) and very social, interactive dolphins. All four young calves were given the opportunity to inspect Kathleen and her green camera … with each mom hanging in the background so the calves did not get too close for too long. Actually, the dolphins might have requested Amanda’s clipboard so that they could document their observations of Kathleen. With their rostrums, the dolphins attempted to flip the clipboard over after it slipped into the sea and inadvertently tasted the data sheets. Obviously, they are not interested in written notes since the clipboard only held their attention for about 2 to 4 minutes.
Sarah participated in the dolphin dive this morning with Hector and Ritchie. The humans were struggling in the current but not the dolphins – they were just gliding by and hardly moving their tails. If I were a dolphin in that situation I would have laughed at the humans because of how funny we looked. It’s humbling to watch them and their effortless movements underwater.
Everyone did the snorkel with dolphins – awesome! So cool! We got to play with the dolphins as opposed to just watching them. We recognized their scars and marks and their personalities. It was fun to play with the calves too … and the moms let them play with us. The dolphins were mouthy and pulled at elbows, legs or hands. The seaweed game was a favorite as well.
The last event for today was a talk by Teri, Director of Training. She shared with us details about operant conditioning and the philosophy of working with these dolphins – beginning with always having a good, positive attitude. It was interesting to see how her mind works and how she works with the dolphins.
We have another dolphin swim and more data to be collected tomorrow!
Wednesday was jam packed with activities – all involved formal and informal behavior observations and lots of time in the water. We collected data from the surface while Kathleen collected data underwater during the early morning session. A bright yellow disk made an appearance – the sun came out during the data collection!! It seemed that everyone – dolphins, people and fish included were more energetic and happy with the sun’s appearance.
Ronnie was interactive at the surface with the student research team – he was head slapping and splashing them until he realized that their first laugh was their last. Hector was very inquisitive to Kathleen underwater and rubbed her on several occasions (it’s hard, not impossible, but very hard, to remain objective when a dolphin decides to rub against you!). At the end of the session, Casey, one of the dolphin trainers had arrived, so we all got to have a greet session with the dolphins at the platform as Kathleen got out of the water.
After breakfast, we collected data for our own research projects – only about 1.5 hrs total this morning (compared with 3.5 from the other day) and once done, we snorkeled on the reef just to the west of Bailey’s Key. We saw lots of butterfly, parrot and damsel fishes as well as wrasse. We saw a few needlefish and a few barracuda. The latter gave us all a start and we hid any shiny objects like cameras and rings. The water was shallow and the current strong but the sun was out and the waves down: a great situation for time in the water.
The afternoon included a scuba dive, which was very rough! It was the first boat dive in the tropics for Sarah, Amber and Amanda and the other divers said this was the roughest dive of the day! The evening was rounded out with the island resort fiesta night. We had barbeque on Anthony’s Key and watched hermit crab races, a fire dancer and limbo contest. This was an entertaining end to a very full day!
We woke to an odd sound … almost silence. The wind had died. The clouds were ever-present but not yet leaking. So, we conducted our first set of surface behavior observations of the four mother/calf pairs, and a few other dolphins.
Each student has to complete a small independent project with their literature review and so each is collecting data on a particular question.
Sarah: I am looking at individual differences in mother attentiveness to their calves during training sessions. I follow one mother/calf pair at a time for a given interval and record when the mom looks for her calf and then when she retrieves her calf. And, if the mom has to be requested to retrieve her calf by a trainer. We have noticed that there are individual differences in how moms watch or tend their calves.
Amanda: I watched whoever passed in front of me to see if they blew bubbles from their blowholes. I am curious to see whether calves bubble more than their adult counterparts. Gracie’s calf seemed to be experimenting with blowing bubbles all over the place.
Amber: I am looking at the frequency of vocalizations from adult females when they are with their calves versus when they are not with their calves. Some of the mothers were loud and vocal the entire observation session. Others were quiet when their calf was near and loud and vocal when the calf was not near.
Kristin: I am looking at who the youngest calves spend their time with. If not with their mother, then are they alone, or with another female or male and also how who they associate with relates to calf age. It seems opposite to what I’d expect because the youngest calf seems to be spending less time with mom than the other three calves!
Kathleen collected about 30 min of data after lunchtime and the current was REALLY STRONG: 30 min was enough to avoid exhaustion while still observing the dolphins. The underwater visibility was ABSOLUTELY GREAT!
The team got to witness the behavior of a different large mammal on land – animals with legs, hoofs and tails that swat. Yes, we went horseback riding! The horses each had unique behaviors and communicated with each other via ear movements and whinnying! Odd to watch and witness these behaviors from atop the horse’s back!
Tomorrow brings more data collection in the early morning.
Cheers
Kathleen, Amanda, Amber, Kristin, Sarah
P.S. the photo shows the team during data collection observations this morning.
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Today’s winter dolphin trip was spectacular. 
One of our favorite Bimini dolphins (oh, wait, aren't they all our favorites!?) has just received a name! ID#078, now called "Speedy," was named by Jenni MacArthur for Mark Tse. Speedy is a juvenile male who is just that. And when he rolls over, you can see his big, dark, belly spot! Now that Speedy's name is official, you can support DCP's research and education programs by adopting him today! Want something a little more flattering? How about a nice cozy sweatshirt with his image front and center? Click to 
Our latest Gazette is hot off the press! This issue of the Gazette focuses mostly on Bimini - the studies, the people and, of course, the dolphins. But there are plenty of other research updates, as well as a matching game where you can test your skill at identifying dolphin species! 
A cloudless day greeted us Friday as we took the taxi boat to Bailey's Key. We were set for another hour session, but the dolphins had other plans. They were into their own social games with the males chasing each other around. There was lots of leaping above the surface and buzzes heard below. French, Ken and Ronnie were all quite pushy and mouthy on my fins. There are days (like today) when I believe the dolphins have absolutely no concept of personal space! It is really hard to conduct a behavioral analysis of the side of a dolphin’s body or a single eyeball in the lens. 
Wednesday's morning session brought 30 minutes of video of socially active dolphins. Maury and Bill were observed together often with Mika's calf hanging close to Maury and sometimes positioning himself between Maury and Bill. It was the least active I have seen Maury in several mornings - she just seemed content to swim next to Bill. Hector, Han and Anthony, on the other hand, were a bit more rambunctious and were rolling all over each other. Mrs. B and Cedena kept their
Tuesday was a good day with a one hour session in the early morning for data collection. We have lucked out with the weather; the morning sky was mostly clear and the sun brightened the view underwater early on. The underwater visibility continued to be EXCELLENT! Ronnie again had new rake marks on his back but that seems nothing new since he is still the instigator in the group. Mika's calf was spending some time with him this morning and I truly hope the calf is not picking up Ronnie's habits! The morning was filled with low-level social activity and all the calves again had a chance to come check out the green tube that I push through the water. We also documented some nursing by Gracie's calf and by Mrs. Beasley's calf.
Today was the first dolphin trip of 2010 and it was a fantastic day. 
We had two morning data collection sessions - one at 6:30 and one at 10 a.m. The sky had a layer of cumulus clouds on the northern horizon which dropped a bit of rain on us early in the morning, but the later morning session had bright sun. The wind and current joined the sun making for an exercise-filled underwater session. The dolphins were very vocal early and Mika had Gracie's calf when I entered. Mika's calf was nowhere that I could see until about 20 min into the session when he was with mom again. The juvenile and adult males were VERY social this morning and Ronnie was riddled with new long rake marks all over his left side! 
We started the morning early again … Kathleen was in the water at 6:37 am. The dolphins were VERY active this morning and we recorded lots of surface behavior. There was much rolling and various body parts splashed about at the surface. It was also our very first fully sunny day! That is, no clouds really to speak of, which led most of us to get a bit of sunburn. But it was totally worth it! We got the sun not only during Kathleen’s data collection but during our observations while the trainers were working with the dolphins this morning. It was our last data collection session for our field projects. This session was about 2 hours long.
We woke to an odd sound … almost silence. The wind had died. The clouds were ever-present but not yet leaking. So, we conducted our first set of surface behavior observations of the four mother/calf pairs, and a few other dolphins.